"there is no such thing as compulsory licensing in Europe - where on earth did you read this?"
you are wrong.
English law provides for compulsory licensing if certain (fairly wide) conditions are met after 3 years from the date a patent is granted. This has been the case for at least a hundred years. Most other EU member States have similar laws, and there is some limited EC law on the subject as well.
to be fair, this may be an example of "defensive patenting" where companies protect themselves against future litigation by patenting absolutely everything they can. Criticise them if they start trying to enforce this, but not for applying for it.
in theory this is the approach in the US and most other countries.
In practice, the US patent office is totally out of control and accepts almost all the applications it receives. This, together with jury trials and the absence of a "loser pays" rule, rewards abusive patent applications and speculative litigation.
If the US doesn't get control of its patent system soon it's going to seriously affect the US's innovation and competitiveness.
it's not that the power supply heats up the case, it's that a power supply normally helps cool the case and a power supply with a feeble fan is less good at this.
in my experience quiet power supplies are quiet because they have slower fans, and so result in a hotter case. So you end up putting in faster & noisier case fans, and get back where you started.
this article is nothing to do with the reasons for decreased sales in America: it's about piracy on an industrial scale, which is primarily a problem in developing nations.
80c per week is not a micropayment: it's just a low subscription fee
A micropayment is when a vendor charges an amount which is almost imperceptible to the purchaser. The example normally given is a teenager paying a few cents to listen to one-time-only Britney Spears single on their mobile phone.
Mobile phones are ideal for micropayments, because their fee structures are designed for charging lots of small amounts. Credit cards are not, and the fees merchants are charged reflect this, which is why this website uses Paypal and Nochex. Personally I wouldn't trust either: they are as fragile as any other internet business and when they go bust you are most unlikely to see your money again. (And, getting off-topic, it's scandalous that they are effectively acting as banks but not regulated as such - expect much wailing and gnashing of teeth when people lose money.)
Since the Apollo program, manned space flight has been an expensive and dangerous waste of time. Nothing's been accomplished by the space shuttle that couldn't have been accomplished by unmanned craft. The "science" carried on by shuttle astronauts has been worthless PR-driven junk (see http://www.aps.org/WN/WN03/wn022103.html).
What we need is all funding currently thrown at manned space flight to be spent on projects which result in genuine science. Take the Hubble telescope: the total cost, including repairs, was $200m. Each shuttle launch costs $400m: ten times as much per tonne of payload than the cheap launch vehicles used by the Russians and Chinese.
The X Prize just encourages the believe that manned space flight is a worthwhile end in itself. It isn't. To the extent it succeeds, it will continue the popular and political obsession with manned space flight and waste more money and lives.
it's not "unknown", it's governed by general relativity. My point was that it could be done in principle - in practice of course it would be mind bogglingly difficult (not to say extremely stupid).
The paragraph you quote is not obvious, just naive. In full:
"There's no such thing as an instant in time or present moment in nature. It's something entirely subjective that we project onto the world around us. That is, it's the outcome of brain function and consciousness"
this is simplistic stuff. You can certainly argue that all of physical nature is subjective, because all we experience is the "outcome of brain function and consciousness". But why pick on time? Why say that time is subjective and length, light or scent is not subjective?
And when he refers to "time", what does he mean? There is a whole literature discussing and attempting to reconcile the differences between geometrical time, cosmological time, therodynamic time and psychological time. This guy doesn't seem to have read any of it.
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Actually the fine can be up to 10% of turnover, which isn't very conducive to shrugging.
"there is no such thing as compulsory licensing in Europe - where on earth did you read this?"
you are wrong.
English law provides for compulsory licensing if certain (fairly wide) conditions are met after 3 years from the date a patent is granted. This has been the case for at least a hundred years. Most other EU member States have similar laws, and there is some limited EC law on the subject as well.
I am a much better mascot.
golly, pleasing /. readers must be the Sundance organisers' top priority. How could they have missed this one?
to be fair, this may be an example of "defensive patenting" where companies protect themselves against future litigation by patenting absolutely everything they can. Criticise them if they start trying to enforce this, but not for applying for it.
in theory this is the approach in the US and most other countries.
In practice, the US patent office is totally out of control and accepts almost all the applications it receives. This, together with jury trials and the absence of a "loser pays" rule, rewards abusive patent applications and speculative litigation.
If the US doesn't get control of its patent system soon it's going to seriously affect the US's innovation and competitiveness.
it's not that the power supply heats up the case, it's that a power supply normally helps cool the case and a power supply with a feeble fan is less good at this.
in my experience quiet power supplies are quiet because they have slower fans, and so result in a hotter case. So you end up putting in faster & noisier case fans, and get back where you started.
thank you!
and less reliable
and slower
and eats up batteries a zillion times faster (that's a real statistic)
do you get embarassed by publishing hype such as "Scientists...now know how the universe will end"?
not irony, stupidity.
Manned space flight has achieved nothing of note since Apollo. Nothing scientific, nothing cultural, nothing economic. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
this article is nothing to do with the reasons for decreased sales in America: it's about piracy on an industrial scale, which is primarily a problem in developing nations.
it looks like the worst of 80s hi-fi designs, complete with garish colour scheme (orange!) and pointlessly large LCD display.
The standard black hi-fi units are boring, but this is actively offensive.
Great idea, though.
Statements like:
"The acquisition of Ximian was an all-cash transaction and is not expected to have a material effect on Novell's financial statements"
imply the amount of money involved was peanuts. Does anybody have figures on this?
80c per week is not a micropayment: it's just a low subscription fee
A micropayment is when a vendor charges an amount which is almost imperceptible to the purchaser. The example normally given is a teenager paying a few cents to listen to one-time-only Britney Spears single on their mobile phone.
Mobile phones are ideal for micropayments, because their fee structures are designed for charging lots of small amounts. Credit cards are not, and the fees merchants are charged reflect this, which is why this website uses Paypal and Nochex. Personally I wouldn't trust either: they are as fragile as any other internet business and when they go bust you are most unlikely to see your money again. (And, getting off-topic, it's scandalous that they are effectively acting as banks but not regulated as such - expect much wailing and gnashing of teeth when people lose money.)
I haven't seen any PDA software that can do symbolic calculus/algebra.
Also, it may seem petty, but for rattling off a simple calculation it's just easier and faster to use something with "real" buttons.
Since the Apollo program, manned space flight has been an expensive and dangerous waste of time. Nothing's been accomplished by the space shuttle that couldn't have been accomplished by unmanned craft. The "science" carried on by shuttle astronauts has been worthless PR-driven junk (see http://www.aps.org/WN/WN03/wn022103.html).
What we need is all funding currently thrown at manned space flight to be spent on projects which result in genuine science. Take the Hubble telescope: the total cost, including repairs, was $200m. Each shuttle launch costs $400m: ten times as much per tonne of payload than the cheap launch vehicles used by the Russians and Chinese.
The X Prize just encourages the believe that manned space flight is a worthwhile end in itself. It isn't. To the extent it succeeds, it will continue the popular and political obsession with manned space flight and waste more money and lives.
it's not "unknown", it's governed by general relativity. My point was that it could be done in principle - in practice of course it would be mind bogglingly difficult (not to say extremely stupid).
you may want to a google search on "Sokal".
the paragraph I quoted was abvious.
The paragraph you quote is not obvious, just naive. In full:
"There's no such thing as an instant in time or present moment in nature. It's something entirely subjective that we project onto the world around us. That is, it's the outcome of brain function and consciousness"
this is simplistic stuff. You can certainly argue that all of physical nature is subjective, because all we experience is the "outcome of brain function and consciousness". But why pick on time? Why say that time is subjective and length, light or scent is not subjective?
And when he refers to "time", what does he mean? There is a whole literature discussing and attempting to reconcile the differences between geometrical time, cosmological time, therodynamic time and psychological time. This guy doesn't seem to have read any of it.
no, you can correct for space-time curvature, and my hypothetical perfect measuring device does just this.
On the other hand, however big the circle is you will always run into the Planck length and therefore your precision will always be finite.
so the probability of something being true is proportionate to the number of people who believe it to be true? This is not our Earth logic.
And your second paragraph is positively Clintonian. This is not a good sign.
great spot!
How come I and thousands of slashdot readers were too stupid to do a google search?
I am a giant invisible space hamster and will destroy the world unless every slashdot reader sends me $100.
According to you, any counterclaim "should be treated as untrue unless you can get proof".
I look forward to receiving $100. Drop me a message and I'll send you the bank account details.